Future Bookworm

If you come over to our house you need to know that this is Avery's favorite chair. She likes to eat her snacks on it, sit at the top and gaze out the window, and she loves to look at books while she is lounging on the "poofy chair." If you sit there, she will climb on you. I'm just warning you.

Her other favorite thing is books. She doesn't really play with toys, but you can get her to sit in your lap and look at books. She doesn't have the attention span yet to sit and listen to every page, but she is getting there. The other day I was busy doing something, probably trying to clean my wreck of a house, and I noticed that it had gotten quiet in the living room. When I came in I saw her sitting in her chair "reading" a Babysitters Club book, which is a chapter book without pictures. (It was also my favorite series of books when I was young.)

I have a feeling that she is going to be one of those kids who is always sitting around reading a book. I think I will love that about her! :)

Not Kidding

This was the best picture I could get today. I think it's a sign of the crazy days ahead for us.

We found out this weekend that our family of four will become a family of five in early October. I'm sure you are wondering, "did they plan this?" The answer to that would be - NO! It's kind of funny, but not really, that we tried for almost two years to get pregnant with Avery but only one time of...umm... not being prepared... and here comes baby #3. I sincerely apologize if that is more information than you wanted to know, but I'm just being honest.

It's amazing how many emotions you can go through in a 24 hour time period. Believe me, I've hit them all so far. Of course I am happy, but there is a large part of me that feels overwhelmed. We are getting ready to move in late spring, Scottie is going to officer training for almost 5 weeks, new house, new city, new life. Not to mention that we are about to enter the world of residency, and rumor has it that its' not easy. I think Scottie has to be on call every four days, and that means that he will be at the hospital the entire time. Won't that be fun to be home alone with three kids every four days??!!

But those are the negatives and I don't want to dwell on them. I want to enjoy this surprise and praise the One who brought him/her to us. It really is a blessing and a miracle, and I want to treat it that way. By the way, we are really praying for a boy. I am 100% done after this little one joins us, so I hope we get to buy lot's of blue!!

Will you join us in prayer for this new little miracle? We are praying for the health and safety for both of us, and the ability to handle all the new stresses that are about to come our way.

Here's to life's wonderful surprises!

LOVL is in the air!

I bought this cute Valentine decoration at Hobby Lobby the other day, but I guess I didn't look at it very closely. Otherwise I would have noticed that it said LOVL instead of LOVE. I hate taking things back, but this is a pretty bad mistake so I will be dragging myself back into Hobby Lobby to exchange it. How did this get past several people? The worker who made it, the person who packaged it, the store employee who unpacked it and hung it in the store, and the dodo who bought it?

I started something new this year for Valentine's day. When I brought this stuff home Scottie asked, "so which blog did you get this idea from?" I was a little mad, but had to laugh because I did see the mailboxes on someones blog. But everything else was my idea!! I sewed the fabric, filled the bucket with paper, pens, and stickers, and labeled our mailboxes. Every day we write a note to each other and say one thing we love about that person. Then we read them at dinner. We'll do it every night until Valentine's day. It has been a lot of fun, and encouraging to hear what someone else loves about you.

Sorry this is sideways, but I couldn't get it to turn. It's Gracie's first note. She didn't quite get the concept, and wrote an apology note for her behavior that morning. Even though it wasn't what I told her to do I loved it just the same. I love that she would take the time to say she was sorry for acting up that day. For Scottie she told him that we are getting an early summer. (It was ground hog's day, obviously!) Now she writes things like " I love you becus you or spishel." I'm going to keep her cards so I can look at them when she's old enough to spell special, and wish I had that little kindergartner again.

I think this is going to be a yearly tradition. It has been a really positive thing for our family. Especially me, as a girl, it's nice to get notes from your husband that tell you things like:
"I think you are so beautiful."
"I love how you take care of me and the girls."
"I love that your are such a great mommy."

Seriously, who doesn't love hearing things like that?? Yep, we will definitely being doing this again. :)

Our Little Talker